Kogan.com founder and CEO Ruslan Kogan has revealed a bold pay restructure that would see him surrender his $850,000 annual salary, live on the minimum wage and donate even that to charity, all while chasing a potential $50 million windfall tied to the performance of the company he built from a Melbourne garage.

Kogan made the announcement during a recent appearance on the podcast Stress Tested, where he outlined plans to put a new pay package to shareholders later this month. The proposal hinges on performance rights, a form of long-term incentive compensation, that would only unlock if he can double the company's share price within five years.

How the Kogan Pay Deal Would Actually Work

Under the proposed arrangement, Kogan would step back from his current $850,000 salary and instead accept Australia's legal minimum wage of approximately $50,000 per year. He has also said he intends to donate that reduced salary to charity, meaning he would effectively receive no personal income from the role in the near term.

In place of a traditional salary, Kogan would be compensated through performance rights. These instruments give the holder the right to acquire ordinary company shares at no cost, but only once a specific performance target has been met. In this case, the trigger is straightforward: the Kogan.com share price must double within five years.

If that milestone is reached, the payout could exceed $50 million. If it is not, the performance rights remain locked and Kogan walks away with little more than the charity donations he made from his minimum-wage salary.

"I would love to be on $1 a year and just make it a package where if shareholders get an incredible outcome and there's an incredible growth in the business, I get rewarded," Kogan said, explaining his thinking to investors.

A Company Built From Humble Beginnings

Kogan's willingness to take a financial risk is arguably consistent with a life story defined by calculated gambles. He emigrated to Australia from Belarus with his family in 1989, arriving as a six-year-old and growing up in a Melbourne housing commission flat.

His interest in technology showed up early. He built his first computer at the age of nine and launched his first business at ten, collecting stray golf balls, cleaning them and repackaging them in egg cartons to sell to weekend golfers at local courses.

After completing university, Kogan walked away from a stable job at 23 and set up his retail business from his parents' garage, a decision that did not initially sit well at home. "Mum was so upset because up until that point, I was on the perfect conventional path for her," he recalled.

That leap ultimately paid off. Kogan.com recorded record sales exceeding $1 billion in the 2026 financial year, with the CEO describing the company as "stronger than ever" ahead of the shareholder proposal.

What the Proposal Means for Shareholders

The structure of the deal is designed to align Kogan's personal financial interests directly with those of the company's investors. Because the performance rights only vest if the share price doubles, shareholders stand to benefit significantly before Kogan receives any meaningful reward.

It is a high-stakes arrangement that removes the guaranteed income most executives rely on and replaces it with an all-or-nothing bet on the business growing substantially. Shareholders are expected to vote on the proposal later this month.

For investors watching high-risk, high-reward financial structures play out in markets, Kogan's proposal represents an unusually transparent wager by a sitting chief executive on his own company's future.